This is perhaps the finest handmade bowl.

Yep, I am biased. This is the first bowl I ever made! I just got it back from the kiln, and this was the first dish that I had in it. I took the bowl through the whole process, shaping it from a raw ball of clay to a bowl. The process of transforming a vessel feels so poetic and sacred.

Because of this, the object feels especially precious, even though it is just transformed from the soil (clay). In the bowl is a strawberry rhubarb yogurt with local granola.

Rhubarb is one of those plants that was so precious and highly prized, even though you might not expect it. The plant looks more like celery than anything else, even though they are not botanical relatives. But due to the difficulty of shipping it to medieval Europe, rhubarb was more expensive than cinnamon, opium, or saffron. Marco Polo went to see where it was cultivated, to stand in awe and learn the secrets of this stalky red plant.

One Castillion traveler along the Silk Road stopped in the city of Samarkand (modern Uzbekistan). He remarked that the best of all merchandise coming to Samarkand was from China: “especially silks, satins, musk, rubies, diamonds, pearls, and rhubarb..."

I will let this serve as a reminder that the majestic can begin from the mundane.

Handmade